Hollybush — Restaurant in Epping Forest

This used to be a great pub. Sadly they've redecorated it in such a confused manner (at great expense I hear) it's as if someone's emptied a skip and nailed it to the walls. The lighting is just terrible, dozens of flickering LED's (or whatever) bulbs that are migrane inducing. The furniture is mostly useless and uncomfortable. Something has also happened to the acoustics, conversation is lost in the racket, the TV's are turned up to combat this, so you can't win. The staff are excellent (hence 3 stars) and of course they have little control over what the owners / brewery have done to ruin this place. In a town where many of the old pubs have either gone or been turned into eateries / trendy 5-minute hotspots, It's a real shame to lose a decent place just because someone thought we need a tractor-hood turned into a (useless) table and other crazy ideas. It's only whilst there's really no other local alternatives that I will return...

I have drank in this pub a few times in the past 6 months and never found a problem with it until Friday actually thought it was a a really lovely place to drink!! Anyway on Friday just gone I had some shopping and had asked the barmaids if I could leave my bags with them as I didn’t want to carry them out to their smoking area where I was sitting thinking they would be ok there! How wrong was I!! stupid me!! I had just been to the local sainsbury and bought some shopping in the area and had bought a packet of cigarettes which I had put in one of the bags that I had left with the barmaid, when I went to get my bags to get my packet of cigarettes back they had gone!! When I asked the manager he more or less just smirked in my face as if he knew, so from this I will never go back in this pub again. And I’m never one to moan or leave a...

Was in there last night 13/1/2023 wetting the babies head , with a few friends , the father definitely had a few but wasn’t causing and fuss , we reserved a area , most of us are in our 40 some young , when the father of the baby had his beer (full pint ) taken by the barmaid , when I asked why , she told me that he’d had enough , ok I said what about a refund as pints are not cheap , no she said , then called over the over zealous bouncers , who asked us the remove him , we told him the situation , they said if we don’t remove they will , it really wasn’t the best , anyway there were over 16 of us , needless to say none of us will ever be setting foot in the holly bush again - a great business decision, good luck for the small future-...